Mechanical Soul
by Darkfire1202
Summary: Quirks aren't all their cracked up to be, they have limits and restrictions, you can only push the human body so far. But technology? Technology doesn't have those limits, with sufficiently advanced technology anything's possible.
1. Prologue: Initialization

**The prologue to my second work. Lets see how this goes, hope you enjoy.**

**Betas: SyberSlash and Raef Darksbane**

**Wordcount: ~500. Fairly short, but it's just story prep.**

**O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O**

Midoriya typed away at his laptop in his darkened room, the clock in the bottom right corner of the screen showing it was shortly after midnight. Lines of code flew across the screen as he added to, subtracted from, and analyzed the lifeblood of the invention that would change his life forever, only occasionally stopping to work out several complex equations on one of the many bits of paper that clutter the surface of his desk.

With a final few taps the greenette saved the code and submitted it to the simulation program he had coded and upgraded over the course of several years.

**[Project: Big Green]**

**[Simulation: #1926a]**

**[Working….]**

The young inventor watched the progess bar with bated breath and crossed fingers. "Come on…"

**[Project: Big Green]**

**[Simulation #1926a complete]**

**[Results: Success]**

"Yes!" Midoriya crowed in excitement as he performed a celebratory dance around the room not caring for how ridiculous he looked. "Hundreds of failed tests and simulations and it's finally working."

**[Project: Big Green]**

**[Estimated Synthesization Time: 1 Month]**

**[Confirm: y/n]**

"Hell yeah!" he almost shouted as he sent the plans to the synthesizer with no hesitation. After confirming and reconfirming that the plans had indeed been sent he rushed to the bulky machine that would be responsible for making Big Green reality and watched in fascination as the multiple arms and chambers whirled around aligning themselves for the first part of creation.

"Now for a shower and a crash," Midoriya mumbled as he felt his body begin to get sluggish now that it's task had been completed. "So glad I was able to convince Mom to let me do all of those online courses instead of having to go to school.

**《《****~One Month Later~****》》**

Captivating. Entrancing. That was what described the vial, pulsating with the soft green of Big Green. But even those words fell short in Midoriya's opinion. An entire month of stressing out over the synthesizer had finally come to fruition.

_'Either all that praying to the gods worked or I'm just that good,' _Midoriya thought with a smile. He then slowly moved across the room taking extreme care to not drop the vial and inserted it into the sleek injector that had been Amazon air-dropped to his porch a few days earlier.

"Functioning injector? Check. Big Green? Czech. _'heh, pun.'_ Scrap metal for replication? Check," the inventor listed off as he laid down on his bed and lined the injector up with the inside of his arm. "This will either go very right or _very _wrong."

Big Green drained into his arm.

**《《****Mechanical Soul****》》**

**[Starting Up]**

**[Initiating POST]**

**[POST complete. No Issues Detected]**

**[Completing boot up process]**

**[Acquiring materials for Replication]**

**[Replicating….]**

**[Establishing neural link]**

**[Neural link established and operating ar 98% efficiency. Estimated lag time: 96ms]**

**[Host body estimated to be at 57% for current age and suffering from sleep deprivation. Rectifying….]**

**[Host body now in peak condition]**

**[Running BG_ ]**

**[Initialization complete]**

**[Host Status: Unconscious]**

**[Entering Standby mode]**


	2. Chapter 1: Default Gateway

**Woohoo! The first official chapter to Mechanical Soul! I know some of you are wondering why this chapter is named the way it is and well for those of you who don't know, a Default Gateway is a part of the network that ALL data must pass through before it can go elsewhere(e. g. A computer ****request**** for a site(say ff .net) has to go through a default gateway first) and I've noticed that most MHA fics go through these events near or at the beginning so ****that's**** where that comes from. But enough rambling, on to the chapter!**

**Wordcount: ~1670**

**Betas: SyberSlash and Raef Darksbane**

**O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O**

The first thing he was aware of when he awoke was just how _good_ he felt. It was like he'd gotten a full twenty-four hours of sleep, then taken a Five-Hour Energy Drink and a couple of vitamin gummies.

_'Should I be worried that I know what that feels like?' _Midoriya thought to himself. _'The answer is yes, but I'm going to say no for my sanity.'_

**[Welcome back to the world of the living, Controller]**

The greenette stared at the pop-up for a full five minutes before it set in what that meant.

_'Holy shit, it worked!' _With a whoop of excitement he launched himself out of his bed, only to stumble as he went much higher and farther than he was used to.

It was then that he realized just how different everything felt. He could almost feel each individual fiber of his night clothes. He could hear the almost non-existent whisper of the fabric as it rubbed against itself and the subtle creak of the floor as he shifted his weight. Every color was more intense, and he could see several shades where before he thought there was only one.

"Better make sure there aren't any negative physical changes," the inventor mumbled as he moved to the large mirror he had hanging on his closet door. He hesitated, shocked, as his voice came out in a smooth baritone that he _definitely_ didn't have the night before. "That's going to take a little getting used to."

Coming to a halt in front of his mirror, he stared at himself in shock. He was taller and had a body that many men would kill for.

"Eat your heart out, Rodgers," he said looking at the pop-ups that identified him at just under six feet tall with a weight that was much higher than a man of his new stature should have.

**[Bone and muscle density have been greatly increased for the sake of body efficiency]**

"Well that answers that question," Midoriya said, dismissing the pop-up with a thought. "And it looks like the control nanites have set up a solid neural link."

_'I'm going to need some new clothes,' _he thought, now uncomfortably aware of just how tight his clothes now were.

**《《》》**

Midoriya Inko wasn't sure what she was expecting when she got up that morning, but a green-haired version of her husband wearing tight clothes and eating her out of house and home was not it.

"When you said that the nanites would change you, this was not what I was expecting," she said, startling her son.

"Oh hi, Mom. Do you know where some of Dad's old clothes are?" He said sheepishly. "Mine have gotten a little tight."

She just shook her head at her son's antics.

**《《》》**

"Alright, it's about 5 miles to Dagobah beach," the young inventor said, now dressed in one of his dad's old black tracksuits. "This should be a good base for how fast the nanites have made me."

He took a runner's stance on the sidewalk then took off, running as fast as he could. As he was running, several boxes detailing speed, time, biometrics and optimal route appeared in the corner of his vision.

Six minutes later, Midoriya skidded to a halt in front of Dagobah beach.

**[Run log]**

**[Max Speed: 50 mph]**

**[Total Distance: 5 mi]**

**[Total Time: 6 mins]**

**[Biometrics: No Issues]**

The greenette whistled in appreciation. That had to be breaking several quirkless speed records.

Making a quick note to look up quirkless records when he got home, Midoriya turned his sights to the beach that had become a junkyard. _'I wonder how long it will take to clean all this up.'_

**[Estimated Clean Time: 5 months]**

"Well, let's get to it," he said, dismissing the notification.

**《《****Timeskip****》》**

The man had a routine and it was fairly simple. Get up, work out, perform his three hours of hero work over the course of the day, then go to bed and repeat.

On his morning run, he'd begun to notice something odd; trash had been disappearing from Dagobah beach. Now, this wasn't bad—it was actually the best thing that could happen to the beach. Disappearing trash meant that someone was taking the time to deal will all the trash that had been illegally dumped there. Needless to say, his curiosity was piqued.

As the months went by and the trash continued to disappear at an alarming rate, his curiosity got the better of him and he began moving his run to different parts of the day in the hopes of seeing just who was cleaning the beach. Then, one day, four months in, he struck gold.

Toshinori was expecting a team of government workers under contract or even a group of friends who took it upon themselves to better the community. What he got instead was a kid in a black tracksuit dragging around defunct a Toyota like it was a little red wagon.

"Holy crap, what kinda quirk does this kid have?" the emaciated man whispered in shock. As he watched, a small tow truck pulled up to the entrance if the beach.

"Hey, Midoriya! What've you got for me today?" the driver called out.

"Hello, Daishi," the boy, Midoriya, replied. "It'll just be this car today; I can handle the rest."

Toshinori's jaw dropped as he watched the kid lift the car onto the back of the tow truck. "Are you sure you don't want payment for this?"

"I've said it once and I'll say it again: seeing you clean the beach is payment enough," the driver replied as he locked the car down. "This beach used to be my gran's favorite place to visit and in a month or two, I'll be able to bring her here again."

The kid waved at the departing truck before staring at a jagged rip in his sleeve for a moment before stashing a pair of microwaves under his arms and began to jog in the direction the truck had gone.

His workout forgotten, the number-one hero began the journey back home while his mind dwelled on the conversation.

**《《》》**

Midoriya pushed his way to the front of the crowd, eager to get some notes of the hero fight that was sure to happen. It was supposed to be a standard shopping trip to get a new tracksuit to replace his old one, but then an explosion had occurred and where there was trouble, there were heroes.

Though so far, the "fight" was very uneventful; the heroes were just standing around watching a kid suffocate.

"My only weakness: a two-lane road!I can't pass through." He had to give Mt. Lady some credit for a pretty good excuse.

"I can't do anything, my punches have no effect!" Death Arms shouted.

_'So just drive your arm in and pull the hostage out…?'_

"Wood and fire don't mix. I'll have to stick with saving civilians."

Midoriya narrowed his eyes. _'No they don't, but it's practically a straight shot to the villain. At least Backdraft is doing his best.'_

Just then, the hostage managed to get part of his head out of the sludge villain's hold. Unfortunately he wasn't able to expose his mouth or nose and was now verging on the edge on unconsciousness. _'Wait a second, is that…?'_

"Hey kid! Get back here!"

_'When did I start running?'_

"Does he want to get himself killed?! Stop him!"

_'No I don't, but I've already committed.'_

"Sorry kid, I've already got myself a hostage," the villain chortled as he shot out several tendrils with the intent to kill.

The nanite user took it in stride and smoothly dodged each tendril and ducked into a roll under the last one, picking up a stone as he came up.

"In situations where you are unsure of your success, cause a distraction. You never know how many seconds you'll buy by doing so," Midoriya muttered, quoting a book of tactics as he used Big Green's HUD to help him aim. The stone flew and struck the villain in the eye.

This bought Midoriya enough time to close the distance. Now in front of the sludge villain, the greenette seized his childhood tormentor by the front of his shirt and tore him out of the villain.

**[Subject: Bakugou Katsuki]**

**[Status:]**

**[Semi-conscious. Will require several days of rest to fully recover from near asphyxiation] **

_'And if you feel the distraction won't buy you enough time, throw your opponent off balance,' _he thought, continuing the quote. _'Guess it's time to pull a JoJo.' _"Your next line is: 'You'll pay for that, brat!'."

"You'll pay for tha—what?! How did you—"

"You've lost."

"Eh?

**"TEXAAAAS"**

"Oh n-"

**"SMASH!"**

**《《》》**

"What you did was extremely reckless and—are you even listening?" Death Arms scolded.

"Reckless? It's called actually doing something instead of sitting on my hands and hoping God will come down and make everything right. At least Backdraft was doing his best," Midoriya shot back.

"We—our quirks weren't suited for this situation," Kamui Woods protested.

"Yeah, well, I don't have a quirk; your excuse is invalid." The corner of his mouth twitched upwards when he saw their gobsmacked faces. "And furthermore, I can think of at least three ways for y'all to have rescued the hostage. The most effective of which being you, Death Arms, rushing the villain to provide a distraction while Kamui pulled the hostage out. Makes me wonder what those hero academies are teaching if you can't come up with such a simple plan."

"I'm going home." He stood up, ignoring Bakugou's glare. "And besides, what are some bruises and pain compared to a saved life?"

**《《》》**

"Quirkless beach cleaner roasts heroes after saving hostage from villain"

That was how the title of a video that was now trending on several hero forums read. A figure, armed to the teeth and hunched over on the top of a water tower watched the video with rapt attention.

"Perhaps there are true heroes amongst us after all," he chuckled as his blood-red scarf flared in the wind.

**O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O**

**I had forgotten about the whole sludge villain incident in my first draft of this chapter. Then that Stain scene at the end was something I just came up with on the spot.**

**For those who missed it, Midoriya has about 1 month left on beach cleaning and if my rough timeline is correct, there are 6-ish months until UA Entrance Exam.**

**Review Review:**

**To RandomDudeOnline: Thanks for the compliment!**

**To Tiguylerobot: Why yes, yes he did.**


	3. Chapter 2: A Meeting

**Woah, I can't believe it's been half a year since the last update to this, and for that I sincerely apologize. My senior year just started and I've been stressing over Dual Credit classes and the million charges that have been getting dropped on me. Hopefully the next chapter won't take half a year to write. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Words: ~1600**

**Betas: SyberSlash and Raef Darksbane**

**O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O**

Morning broke on Dagobah Municipal Beach, it's white sands clear of trash and debris once more. The reflections of the morning sunrise on the ocean's surface made it appear as if the water had caught fire. All told, it was a sight that reminded all who gazed upon it just why the beach was so popular. A thick silence blanketed the beach as all of Nature seemed to hold its breath at the beautiful sight. It wouldn't be long before couples and families flocked to the gleaming shores once more.

A scream pierced the silence, but not one of fear or anger. No, it was one of victory, will power untamable. A scream borne of one who had, despite all odds, taken another step towards his dream. Soon, he would prove everyone who had told him he would never amount to anything wrong.

Midoriya gasped for breath as he finished emptying his lungs as he stared out at the ocean. A vicious grin spread across his face as he clenched his fists. While he had accomplished much in the past three years he spent away from Bakugou, none filled him with as much pride as the spotless beach.

**[While your achievement is highly commendable, I recommend you drop the smile; you're starting to scare the children.]**

"Eh?" he said eloquently, looking around to see a group of small children staring at him apprehensively. "Oh, my bad."

**[Don't worry about it.]**

**[You did something few could achieve, be proud.]**

"Thanks, BG," the greenet replied as he moved to grab his backpack and head home.

**[No problem.]**

**[Also you should probably get a move on; cam feeds are showing that The Cult is en route.]**

"It's not a cult," he muttered even as he picked up the pace.

**[They practically worship the ground you walk on while praising you for your extreme manliness and youth.]**

"Well, when you put it like that it does sound a lot like a cult," he began. "How'd I get a cult anyways?"

**[You performed an impossible task in an impossible time frame and roasted the pants off of several heroes in front of the media.]**

"Oh ye—," Midoriya started only to be cut off by excited shouting.

"There he is! Hey bro, what should I add to my workout to become as manly as you?" a first exclaimed.

"Midoriya-sama, show us your flames of youth!" cried another as the group began running to him.

"How the hell do you keep finding me?!" the greenet panicked as he began sprinting down the beach. This of course was the que for The Cult to begin chasing the inventor in earnest.

"Your manliness is a beacon to all, Midoriya-sama!" shouted a third.

"Why are you running from us, Midoriya-sama?!" a fourth cried in tears because his idol didn't want to show them his manliness.

"Isn't it obvious? He wishes to challenge us to a test of youth!" the second replied in eagerness causing The Cult's excitement to increase to near tangible levels as their speed doubled.

"THAT'S NOT IT AT ALL!"

"There's no need to be ashamed of your youth, Midoriya-sama!"

**《《》》**

"I think I finally lost them," Midoriya panted as he sank to the ground of the alley way he had hidden in. The chase had lasted the better part of two hours and not even the greenet's nanite aided speed had been enough to leave them in the dust until they had collapsed in exhaustion, pledging to double their training so that they may one day catch up.

**[It's quite impressive that they managed to keep up for so long even though most of their quirks didn't affect speed or strength.]**

**[Perhaps we should look into the limits of the human body some time.]**

"That sounds like a good idea, glad I thought of it," the inventor said proudly.

**[You? It was me who came up with it.]**

"You are a series of algorithms that I wrote by hand, modeled after my own personality, anything you do is technically still my work," he huffed, rising to his feet as stretched his back resulting in several satisfying pops.

**[I am an artificial intelligence that you, and I quote, "hope to become something more," and let me tell ya, I am.]**

**[You know what, I bet you're just salty because I thought of something you didn't.]**

"I am one of the greatest scientific minds to grace the world with my presence, I am _not_ salty," the greenet growled as he exited the alley and began to head home.

**[Greatest scientific mind? Boy, you haven't even figured out how to generate your constructs yet.]**

"I'm working on it. It's not like I can plug numbers in numbers and solve an equation," he complained. "And you shouldn't be taking that tone with your creator."

**[Okay, Boomer.]**

"Ah, _there's_ the humor/sarcasm pack I installed," Midoriya murmured with a grin.

"Make way people, there's science to be done!" an excited woman with pink dreadlocks cried out as she ran down the sidewalk with a pile of half completed inventions in her arms. Between the grease-stained clothing and manic expression on her face, she looked the perfect picture of a mad scientist. The greenet knew from experience that it was these kinds of inventors that made the most interesting stuff.

**[Is it just me, or does she look like you when you're on one of your inventing binges?]**

"She does, doesn't she?" he murmured as he watched her approach. Then, when she was a mere five feet away from Midoriya, she tripped, sending her inventions scattering everywhere. The world seemed to slow as one of said inventions flew towards him as it gave the tell tale bulging of an imminent explosion.

Midoriya clenched his eyes shut as he raised his arms to protect his face, completely oblivious to the slight lurch in his arm. When the explosion finally came it wasn't the scorching heat and burning shrapnel he was familiar with, instead there wasn't any heat or shrapnel and the explosion itself had an oddly metallic sound to it. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to find a circular shield attached to his left arm.

**[Wow, seems like you just needed the proper motivation to make the constructs.]**

"No need to sound so surprised, BG," the greenet muttered with a sigh. "Now how do I collapse it?"

**[Now that you have created the proper neural pathways, you should just be able to collapse constructs at will; same should go with creating constructs.]**

With a thought, green circuit lines spread across the shield from where it was strapped to his arm, and with a metallic clunk, the shield seemed to fold in upon itself as his body reabsorbed the nanites.

"How'd you do that?" a voice demanded. Looking up, Midoriya found himself face to face with the pink-haired woman with an impatient expression on her face. Recoiling slightly, he began to open his mouth, but before he could answer, the woman had already seized his arm and was muttering rapidly as she examined it intently.

**[Dear Gods, help us all; there are two of them.]**

"No," he interjected, gently pulling his arm out of her grasp, "I don't have a strength quirk, or even a quirk at all."

"Support gear?"

"Nanites," the greenet replied with a nod.

"Those are only found on I-Island," she replied suspiciously.

"I synthesized them myself," he said proudly. "Took me several years but I did it."

"That still doesn't explain why your arm is heavier than it should be."

"The nanites made my bones and muscles denser."

"Ah," she said, chewing on the inside of her cheek thoughtfully as she stared at him. "I guess that would explain it."

Midoriya shifted slightly as she continued to stare at him. "So, need any help getting your inventions wherever you were taking them?"

Next thing he knew, he was cradling a pile of inventions and being drug into a garage by the pinkette.

**[How did we get here so fast?]**

"No clue, but I'm just going to roll with it," the greenet replied.

"You can just set those here," she said dismissively as she dumped her armful on a cluttered table.

**[Nice place. Reminds me of your room, only more chaotic.]**

Midoriya nodded in agreement as he looked around the garage, noting the numerous half-completed inventions and blueprints scattered around. One particular blueprint caught his interest. "A mech?"

"Yep, I call it Adskiy Uragan," the woman said from beside him.

**[That roughly translates to Infernal Hurricane]**

"Interesting," he thoughtfully. "Manual controls or neural interface?"

"Neural obviously," she said, picking up some tools and moving to a workbench against the wall. "It offers the best response time."

"Any idea on how you're going to get the materials to build it?"

"Nanites."

"Nanites. You do realize I have the only non-government controlled supply of nanites?"

"Yep."

"And what will I get from helping you?"

"A giant mech."

**[She makes a good point.]**

"I'm in," the greenet said with a smile, shaking the proffered hand eagerly.

**《《》》**

At the same time a small white bear-mouse-dog-person-thing paused in his speech and shuddered slightly before smiling and taking a sip of his tea.

"Are you alright, Principal?" the R-18 heroine, Midnight asked in concern.

"Perfectly fine, Midnight," the creature replied. "I just have a feeling that this next school year will be quite interesting."

Around the table where the staff of UA were gathered for a meeting, many of the teachers paled at the thought of whatever had the principal interested.

"Anyways, how is our budget for this year looking, Mr. Yosan?" Nezu continued, turning to the head of the business courses.

Despite the principal's apparent unconcern, several of the teachers couldn't help but be worried for the coming year.

**O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O**

**I just realized that Hatsumei never gave her name... oh well, who needs names when you can have giant mechs anyways? Not these two.**

**When I was originally writing this there wasn't a Manliness Cult and I have no idea where it came from. But what I can say is that it'll probably be back at some point.**

**In other news, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I've had a great one so far; my brother recently got a PS4 and I've been playing his copy of Fallen Order and the only thing it needs to be perfect is Force Unleashed's lightsaber dismemberment. I've also been watching The Mandalorian in Disney+ and it is most definitely The Way.**

**Review Review:**

**To tyguylerobot: Thanks for the suggestion, though I'm not really going for a cyborg look**

**To Raunen: I'm not sure what the ship for this will be. Current plans are no ship, though that may change.**

**To everyone else: Thank you for your reviews!**


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